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Paul Getzel, the deputy executive director of Lifelong, an AIDS service organization, said the Trump administration’s “vague reference” to shifting resources within HIV and AIDS programs to substance-abuse treatment “puts us on pins and needles.” The president announced Thursday that the opioid addiction and death rates were a “public health emergency,” and he would redirect resources to combat the problem.

Trump’s statements left Getzel wondering whether federal funding through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program could be at risk. That program provides millions to Lifelong for care and HIV prevention.

“We really depend on those federal dollars,” Getzel said. “If you move funding away from care and prevention work, that sets up an increase of HIV infections.”

In explaining the shift, the president drew a connection between HIV transmission and substance abuse. But in Washington state, the vast majority of AIDS cases are a result of sexual contact, not injection drug use.

“A lot of that is because we have active syringe [exchange] programs,” Getzel said. “Because of that … we don’t allocate that much [funding] to substance abuse at the moment.”

Representatives of both the King County and state health departments said the president’s action was short on details, and it was too soon to know what effect his actions would have here.

“Any effort on federal government to call attention to this public health crisis is welcome,” said David Johnson, a spokesman with the state Department of Health. “We’re just not ready to comment on that until we get a better read on where the federal government is going and what this means.”

Getzel said Lifelong was getting used to pronouncements with murky details from the Trump administration.